What’s the best way to start a new cricket club?
You go straight to the top - of the Australian batting order, that is. 
When enterprising Bond University medical student Benjamin Rainbird and a couple of his mates decided they wanted to enter a team in the UniSport tournament, they reached out to fellow Bondy and Australian Test opener Usman Khawaja.
“At first I asked him if he could play for us,” Rainbird said.
“But he is in America so that was a no.”
However, the reigning Wisden Test Cricketer of the Year happily sent one of his Test match shirts to help the fledgling team raise money for uniforms and equipment for the tournament which will be held at the Sunshine Coast in July.
The shirt was worn by the elegant left-hander on the recent tour of New Zealand won 2-0 by Australia.  
Rainbird, a Brisbane grade cricketer, said he had dreamed of representing Bond from his first year as a student. 
The (cricket) ball started rolling this year when Rainbird and seven other cricket-mad medical students decided it was time to put dreams into action. 
“There’s a lot that goes into starting a club and making sure it doesn’t phase out,” Ben said.
“Much more than we expected. 
“One of our executives is the president of the Bond soccer club so he had some ideas on the process but the rest of us have pretty much been working it out as we go along.”
As they collected numbers from other faculties, they were soon able to enter a local and social eight-aside competition.
“Last Man Stands is our Sunday activity to just chill with mates,” Benjamin said.
“Being medical students means getting a full team together every weekend can be really hard. Some people want to go home on weekends, and some want to dedicate that weekend to study.
“So, we recruited some boys from the gym to play.’’
The Bond cricketing community allows the students an escape from their regular seats in the library. 
With two training sessions a week at the Bond cricket nets, the squad is starting to grow in size. 
They will take a squad of 15 up the coast to compete under the Bull Sharks flag. 
The crew have collected some exciting players to their squad list, most having played representative cricket or first grade cricket in high school.
Just looking for a bit of fun, and an occasional break from the books, Rainbird will be doing his best to keep the club running for all those who might need it for the same reasons in the future. 
“No one wants to compromise results; we have this so that everyone is having fun outside of study,” he said.
“We started this up so that we could play cricket with friends, making it more fun than with strangers at other clubs.” 
The money from their prize raffle will play a big part in cementing the club in Bond’s long list of student clubs.
Access to communal cricket gear would make the world of difference for the club’s future stability in Rainbird’s eyes and to assist in his goal of also establishing a women’s side. 
“We had a few girls interested too, so we will try to get that side up and running for next year’s competition,” he said.
“We hope to get some gear through this fundraiser so that we can keep the club running and have supplies for any international students wanting to play next semester.”